Thursday, 31 May 2018

Best TCM Doctor Treat Persistent Cough Asthma Poor Appetite

Flu & cough is the most common illness afflicting mankind. Every once in a while, we come down with flu followed by cough. Most people get well within 4-10 days. But many do not get well for months and have persistent cough. TCM calls it “100-day cough” “百日咳”.

In my clinic, young mothers especially will bring their children to see me for their cough. They feel that Chinese medicine is natural and is better for their children and has less side effects. Also they do not want their children to take too many antibiotic. Many adults, including working adults, also come to see me as they complain that the Western medicine makes them drowsy, sometimes lethargic. Most of them cannot claim reimbursement from their company and pay from their own pockets. They believe that Chinese medicine are made from natural herbs and have little or no side effects.

Some of these people who come to see me have already seen their company doctors or specialists but could not get well. They may have taken three rounds of western medicine and could not get well. So as a last resort, they try Chinese medicine.

How do I treat cough?

For young children, they normally have persistent cough or recurrent cough. The cough comes and goes. Some of these children also have bronchitis and asthma. They often have to rely on nasal spray whenever they do not breathe well. Some of them rely on nasal spray everyday until the cough or asthma subsides. These children usually do not eat well or take a much longer time to finish their meals. They are normally not keen on meals but keen on tit-bits like chocolates, biscuits, French fries and ice cream etc. I would suggest to their mothers that the children come for one course (10 sessions) of children therapeutic massage. They can come every three days or if they do not have time, at least come once a week. I observe that these children like the massage; some of them even request their mother to bring them more often (of course, during the massage session, they are given some toys to play). The mothers (sometimes the grandmothers) of these children always tell me that after a few rounds of massage, their children eat better and are healthier and do not fall sick so often.

Some of the adults who see me may have asthma besides cough; they tell me that they tend to cough in cold environment such as air-con room and middle of the night around 3 pm to 4 pm. Some of them tell me that they have chest congestion and have muscle ache below the chest area. Some of these adults have a history of asthma while some develop asthma in recent years. I will suggest that they do scrapping (刮痧) and acupuncture besides taking the Chinese medicine. Very often, their “Sha痧” is very red. That means they have a lot of heat in their body. During the acupuncture session, I will ask them to do breathing exercise off and on for about 20 minutes. I tell them that they may have phlegm in their lungs even though they do not cough out phlegm. I need to lubricate their lungs and clear their phlegm. Besides all these, I also give them some medicine to strengthen their lungs as they have been coughing for quite some time. Very often, they come back to tell me that they are better and cough less often.

There are also quite many young adults from the army (doing national service). They have seen the army medical doctors and could not get well. They have persistent cough that does not seem to go away for weeks. Many of them have not experienced acupuncture, but in order to get well, they try acupuncture.

Many patients come to see me complaining of constant constipation. They say that they always have to rely on Western medicine such as in order to move their bowels. After examining them, they usually have reflux or gastric problem. Some of them have breathing problem as well. They even need to take deep breath in order to feel better. I told them that basically , the function of their digestion system is not good; when the stomach is bloated with gas, it will push up the diaphragm, the lung and the heart. Some of them had mistaken that they have heart problem and went to consult cardiologists.

There is a woman whom I have treated. She is about 45 yrs old and has chronic constipation. She said she has no urge to move her bowels at all every day for the past few months. She had to take laxative every day. She also had breathing problem. She needed to take a deep breath every now and then. After a few sessions of acupuncture and herbal prescription, her constipation and breathing problem improve and got well.

We TCM feel that the root cause is the gas in the stomach. With cupping, acupuncture and scrapping (刮痧) and herbal medication to help them on their digestion and bowel movement, constipation sufferers can get well in 5 sessions or about one month (for those without real heart problem).

To many people, constipation is not a big problem. But some have constant constipation problem. They need to take a lot of fruits and water, sometimes laxative to help to move bowels.

Clinically, I have seen many patients (including young children) who have constipation problem. Some move their bowels only once a week. Some feel that they suffer no discomforts (they can work as usual), while some feel that the whole day is spoilt or they become very tense.

For young kids, if they have constipation problem, I would recommend child therapeutic massage together with some medication to help them on their digestion. Very often, after 10 sessions of child therapeutic massage, they can move bowel naturally...........................................................................................................................................................

Gastric pain is a very common ailment, regardless of age. Almost every day we TCM physician treat patients with gastric pain.

A 69 year old lady came to see me.She said she had been suffering from gastric pain for the last two years.She avoided eating spicy food because every time she ate curry or chili stuff, her stomach would feel uncomfortable.If she ate too full at dinner time, she would have acid reflux, heart burn, esophagus/throat discomfort. She often burped and farted (emit gas) after meals.Sometimes in the middle of the night, she would wake up because she felt gas rising gashing up to her throat. Her motion was regular but often had soft stool.She was taking western medicine for sometimes. But her symptoms still remained unchanged.

I treated her with acupuncture and prescribed herbal medicine.Two weeks later, she came back and told me that her symptoms had improved and she had less gas in her stomach and burped less often.At night, she did not feel the gas coming up to her throat.She requested for more herbal medicine.I told her that she should avoid fried and spicy food during this time until she got well.She came several times for acupuncture treatment and faithfully consumed my herbal medicine. Eventually her gastric problem subsided and she could eat anything she likes.I have also treated many cases where these people felt "heaty" (上火) and often had headache, so they often took or drink cooling stuff such as watermelon, chrysanthemum tea "菊花茶", "金银花茶“, "24味凉茶“, 羚羊, bitter guard and coconut water to cool themselves. After sometimes, they felt they often had stomach discomfort, gastric and bloatedness. These people who have stomach problem should avoid cooling stuff.

Many patients have gastric problem, gastric pain, bloatedness, flatulence, Irritable Bowel Syndrome IBS. Many adults are more prone to Irritable Bowel Syndrome IBS. Many of them have seen Western doctors for some months/years and are taking western medicine. Patients who came to see our TCM physicians for such problem usually complained of stomach discomfort, flatulence, heat sensation or discomfort in their abdomen. In severe cases, the sufferers may feel that gas is rising gushing to their throat whenever they drink water or eat food. Those who suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) told our TCM physicians that they often have to run to the toilet immediately after meals. There are some who feel stomach discomfort when they are hungry or feel bloated stomach pain after a meal. Through colonoscopy, some were diagnosed with having excessive acid in their stomachs. In some cases, they are diagnosed to have H.Pylori.

TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) physician adopts many ways to treat gastric problems, gastric pain. gastritis, flatulence and Irritable Bowel Syndrome IBS. We administer TCM acupuncture, expel air/wind using cupping method. We also prescribe TCM herbal medicine for the patients. At the same, we tell them to refrain from eating spicy and oily food, hard nuts (peanuts), alcohol, cold drinks, yellow noodle, chocolate etc. We advise them to take blander and easily digestible food. For those who have serious gastric problems, gastritis, stomach pain, flatulence, bloatedness, Irritable Bowel Syndrome IBS, we even advise them to drink mineral water during the occurrence period. We also tell them the cause of gastric problem is due to poor eating habits over the past years.

There was a case of a bank manager around 45 years old who told me that he had very bad gastric problem. He said he had been seeing his western doctor for 4~5 years but his condition did not get better. He came to see us TCM physician because his colleagues from China told him that he should see a TCM Chinese physician for his type of problem. They told him that TCM is good in treating chronic gastric problem. He told me that his stomach always had wind and he often burped and let off gas. He said that when he attended company meetings and needed to participate in the discussions, he felt that he could not speak too much as whenever he did so, he felt a gush of gas coming up to his throat and made him difficult to talk. He also told me that whenever he raised his voice to reprimand his staff for doing something wrong, he immediately felt that there was a gush of gas coming up from his abdomen to his throat. He said that he was very sensitive to a lot of food and felt very embarrassed whenever he was choosy on food when going out in a group for lunch. He came to see me and had two courses of acupuncture treatment with cupping (one course=10 sessions). He was also prescribed TCM herbal medicine. As his condition gradually improved, he faithfully underwent two courses. At the end of the treatment, he was happy to find his gastric problem cured.

We also have a few cases where the patients told me that they often felt a gush of gas coming up to their throat and often burp. Some of them told me that they burped non-stop. Strangely, when I did cupping and TCM acupuncture for them, they immediately stopped burping. I told them that they have to come back for a few more sessions for a long term cure.

For patients who suffer chronic gastric problem, I would analyze their conditions and ask them a few questions as follows:

1)When they were hungry, do they have to find food immediately to ease their discomfort in their stomach?

2)Do they have stomach pain after food or they cannot eat too full?

3)Do they need to run to the toilet after food?

4)Do they feel discomfort/gas rising gashing to their throat after food?

5) Do they feel that constantly they feel something in their throat and could be rid off?

6)Do they have heat or cooling sensation in the stomach area (left abdomen)?

We TCM physician will then prescribe them the appropriate TCM Chinese medicine and also give them a course of TCM acupuncture treatment. Through my personal experience, I found that those patients who came for one to two courses of acupuncture treatment together with oral TCM herbal medicine showed a great deal of improvement.